SPLIT SECOND WORKSHEET: 1. In the space below, describe the stasis at the beginning of Split Second. In other words, “Where are we?” “When is it (time, day, and year)?” “Who are the people involved?” “What is the dramatic situation in which the characters find themselves as the play unfolds?” Split Second begins with Val Johnson, a black cop, arresting a white man, W. Willis, for attempting to steal a car on the night of the 4th of July in New York City.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play? Be careful when citing the intrusion, it may not be where you initially think it is. The intrusion of the play occurs the moment that Val lies about how the arrest/murder of Willis played out. Val recites the false story, that Willis pulled a knife and attacked him, that matches how he had ‘re-arranged’ the crime scene prior to the arrival of backup. However, the audience knows that Val actually shot Willis while he was cuffed and in custody. This lie becomes the pinnacle issue of this play that leads to the degradation of his relationship with his father, Val’s moral inner-turmoil and the shattering of Val’s ideal self (which is a good, morally strong cop like his father was).
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor which is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place? This is the day that Val Johnson shoots Willis and lies about how it happened.
4. State the dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.) Over the course of Split Second, the audience is left to wonder which version of the story will Val end up telling the committee at the Departmental Hearing. This question is actually left tantalizingly unanswered until the final lines of the script. By these lines, the audience knows that he has chosen to live with his original lie.
5. Use Val to answer the questions concerning character. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, that is, dramatic actions that are taken. Examine what Val wants (NOTE: In Split Second the wants of Val are in flux and he is being swayed by his father, his wife, his friend, and his colleague at work. His wants seem to change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a character. They are: a. Me against myself, b. Me against another individual, c. Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.) and, d. Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods. In answering these questions be sure to point to the particular obstacles that the character encounters. Throughout Split Second, Val struggles with various aspects of the truth: honesty with others regarding his crime and reconciling his identity with his actions. We see his struggle to be honest with both himself (Val against himself) and the people around him, in the face of his urges for self-preservation. We see this struggle in his initial conversation with Alea, his talk with his father, and his confession to Charlie at the bar. In each of these conversations, we see Val start off with a lie and then slowly break down, revealing bits of the truth. Essentially, in these conversations, we see Val struggle to own his actions; we know that he desperately wants to do what is morally right (if he didn’t, he’d have no problem lying). Overall, in his struggle to be honest, we see the part of Val that is painfully moral struggling to tell the truth against his own selfish desire to lie. Furthermore, Val struggles to reconcile who he thought he was with the crime he committed. It is clear that Val has a strong sense of morality and high standards that he holds himself to as an officer from his conversations with his friends and family. However, his actions do not go with the ideal-self-identity that he has developed through the years. This disparity between the kind of man he saw himself as/that he wanted to be and his killing Willis create a cognitive dissonance within Val. We see this in Val’s vacillation back and forth between maintaining the lie or coming clean by the end of the play.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. Identify the most theatrical moments in Split Second. The most theatrical moment of the play is when Val shoots Willis. Not only does the fast argument come to a sudden stop, but there is also a drastic and ominous shift from noise to silence, contributing to the overall finality of that gun shot. From the very opening lines, the dialogue has been constant, fast-paced, and disarming; the audience is so engrossed in the atrocity of what is being said that the shot not only shocks the audience, but highlights the ‘split second’ between life and death. Another theatrical moment occurs when Val finally speaks at the Departmental Hearing in the final scene. Up to this point, there has been no convincing indication as to whether he will tell the truth or stick with his initial lie. From the very moment Val lied, the audience has been held at high anticipation and suspense and is held so until the final lines of the play. This final scene is the ‘grand reveal’ of the entire play, the peak that the whole plot has been working towards.
7. Provide at least three examples of images in Split Second. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”) Val’s father, Rusty acts as a significant symbol throughout Split Second. Rusty is Val’s unofficial idol and the ideal that Val creates his whole career around. We see this directly through Val’s interactions with Rusty and more indirectly through Val and Alea’s discussions. Alea’s comments make it very clear that Rusty impacts, if not entirely determines, Val’s strong values and high standards as a police officer. Another major image throughout the play is the knife that belonged to Willis. Val’s entire lie, and in turn his future and fate, relies on the presence of this one little knife. That knife is the fine line between Val being marked as a hero or as a murderer. Along with his father and Willis’ knife, another symbol arises: “three feet”. Throughout the play, (specifically, his confessions to his father, wife, and friend) we hear Val repeat the phrase “three feet” almost incessantly, almost like a mantra. It is in this repetition that we see Val trying to convince himself of his own lie, clinging to it in an attempt to fend off the guilt of his crime. Something he will probably do till the day he dies.
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in Split Second. Some of the themes in Split Second are: truth (and its many sides), systematic racism, identity, morality, and justice.
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with the dramatic action in Split Second? In Split Second, the concept of family acts as this glue between individuals even in the face of horrible deeds and seemingly unforgivable actions. In this play, we see Alea and Rusty both loving and caring for Val despite his heinous crime. Those relationships, although dysfunctional and damaged, survive the fact that Val murdered another person. In essence, Split Second, portrays the concept of family as a bond that transcends immorality and bad circumstance.
1. In the space below, describe the stasis at the beginning of Split Second. In other words, “Where are we?” “When is it (time, day, and year)?” “Who are the people involved?” “What is the dramatic situation in which the characters find themselves as the play unfolds?”
Split Second begins with Val Johnson, a black cop, arresting a white man, W. Willis, for attempting to steal a car on the night of the 4th of July in New York City.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play? Be careful when citing the intrusion, it may not be where you initially think it is.
The intrusion of the play occurs the moment that Val lies about how the arrest/murder of Willis played out. Val recites the false story, that Willis pulled a knife and attacked him, that matches how he had ‘re-arranged’ the crime scene prior to the arrival of backup. However, the audience knows that Val actually shot Willis while he was cuffed and in custody. This lie becomes the pinnacle issue of this play that leads to the degradation of his relationship with his father, Val’s moral inner-turmoil and the shattering of Val’s ideal self (which is a good, morally strong cop like his father was).
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor which is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place?
This is the day that Val Johnson shoots Willis and lies about how it happened.
4. State the dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.)
Over the course of Split Second, the audience is left to wonder which version of the story will Val end up telling the committee at the Departmental Hearing. This question is actually left tantalizingly unanswered until the final lines of the script. By these lines, the audience knows that he has chosen to live with his original lie.
5. Use Val to answer the questions concerning character. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, that is, dramatic actions that are taken. Examine what Val wants (NOTE: In Split Second the wants of Val are in flux and he is being swayed by his father, his wife, his friend, and his colleague at work. His wants seem to change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a character. They are: a. Me against myself, b. Me against another individual, c. Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.) and, d. Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods. In answering these questions be sure to point to the particular obstacles that the character encounters.
Throughout Split Second, Val struggles with various aspects of the truth: honesty with others regarding his crime and reconciling his identity with his actions.
We see his struggle to be honest with both himself (Val against himself) and the people around him, in the face of his urges for self-preservation. We see this struggle in his initial conversation with Alea, his talk with his father, and his confession to Charlie at the bar. In each of these conversations, we see Val start off with a lie and then slowly break down, revealing bits of the truth. Essentially, in these conversations, we see Val struggle to own his actions; we know that he desperately wants to do what is morally right (if he didn’t, he’d have no problem lying). Overall, in his struggle to be honest, we see the part of Val that is painfully moral struggling to tell the truth against his own selfish desire to lie.
Furthermore, Val struggles to reconcile who he thought he was with the crime he committed. It is clear that Val has a strong sense of morality and high standards that he holds himself to as an officer from his conversations with his friends and family. However, his actions do not go with the ideal-self-identity that he has developed through the years. This disparity between the kind of man he saw himself as/that he wanted to be and his killing Willis create a cognitive dissonance within Val. We see this in Val’s vacillation back and forth between maintaining the lie or coming clean by the end of the play.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. Identify the most theatrical moments in Split Second.
The most theatrical moment of the play is when Val shoots Willis. Not only does the fast argument come to a sudden stop, but there is also a drastic and ominous shift from noise to silence, contributing to the overall finality of that gun shot. From the very opening lines, the dialogue has been constant, fast-paced, and disarming; the audience is so engrossed in the atrocity of what is being said that the shot not only shocks the audience, but highlights the ‘split second’ between life and death.
Another theatrical moment occurs when Val finally speaks at the Departmental Hearing in the final scene. Up to this point, there has been no convincing indication as to whether he will tell the truth or stick with his initial lie. From the very moment Val lied, the audience has been held at high anticipation and suspense and is held so until the final lines of the play. This final scene is the ‘grand reveal’ of the entire play, the peak that the whole plot has been working towards.
7. Provide at least three examples of images in Split Second. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”)
Val’s father, Rusty acts as a significant symbol throughout Split Second. Rusty is Val’s unofficial idol and the ideal that Val creates his whole career around. We see this directly through Val’s interactions with Rusty and more indirectly through Val and Alea’s discussions. Alea’s comments make it very clear that Rusty impacts, if not entirely determines, Val’s strong values and high standards as a police officer.
Another major image throughout the play is the knife that belonged to Willis. Val’s entire lie, and in turn his future and fate, relies on the presence of this one little knife. That knife is the fine line between Val being marked as a hero or as a murderer.
Along with his father and Willis’ knife, another symbol arises: “three feet”. Throughout the play, (specifically, his confessions to his father, wife, and friend) we hear Val repeat the phrase “three feet” almost incessantly, almost like a mantra. It is in this repetition that we see Val trying to convince himself of his own lie, clinging to it in an attempt to fend off the guilt of his crime. Something he will probably do till the day he dies.
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in Split Second.
Some of the themes in Split Second are: truth (and its many sides), systematic racism, identity, morality, and justice.
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with the dramatic action in Split Second?
In Split Second, the concept of family acts as this glue between individuals even in the face of horrible deeds and seemingly unforgivable actions. In this play, we see Alea and Rusty both loving and caring for Val despite his heinous crime. Those relationships, although dysfunctional and damaged, survive the fact that Val murdered another person. In essence, Split Second, portrays the concept of family as a bond that transcends immorality and bad circumstance.